World's oldest mother gives birth to twins...at 70.


What sort of doctor would perform IVF on a seventy year old woman? Those kids are going to be orphans pretty soon.

Dear Human-

Why is it so noisy today? There are strange bangs and booms outside. And you said I can not sit out on the porch today because of something called July 4th. What is with that?

Would you please open the closet door so I could please hide in it? The noises are getting loud again.

Pete the Cat

cross posted to note_from_cat

I want to work for Pixar. I just got back from seeing Wall-E, and it is absolutely as advertised. Yes, Wall-E does sorta resemble Number Five from Short Circuit, but you get over the comparisons pretty fast. It's just an amazing piece of filmmaking and will easily be the top contender for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.

Next up on the summer movie horizon: The Dark Knight. Only two more weeks!

Youtube recommended me this video someone made of Jemaine saying "what", "yeah", and "yes".
I never really realized how much he said it, but I though this video was pretty funny and cute so I decided to share it.

It's that time of year again, when my dog Kippy is freaking out because of all the things that go boom!

This is my dog right now.

Happy 4th of July, everyone. And please think of all the animals in your neighborhood, before you stand in your front yard firing off firecracker after firecracker.

My husband brought this article to my attention. Seems there is a possibility Duran Duran might be doing the song for the next Bond movie "Quantum of Solace."

Click me to read the story.

I'm curious about theist assumptions about atheists.

I certainly can imagine that many theist think atheists are all nihilist hedonists...very anger ones.  I'm wondering though, is there any assumption someone has made about you that was completely unexpected and bizarre?

What DO they say about us?

Guinness is sick, and I'm not sure with what.

He doesn't eat much, but still enjoys his morning wet meal and treats. He is very lethargic, but still wants to go outside. His eyes are a bit on the gunky side, but not horribly cloudy or anything. And he isn't talking. That's the weirdest part of all. He's usually a very talkative kitty, and the last few days he's only squaked a few very strangled sounding sounds and has had a few wheezing spells.

The vet is closed today, curse them, so I'll have to take him in tomorrow.

But I'm very worried. :( He still wants to play, but he's usually so .. independant and almost arrogant. Now he's just .. tired and lovey.

Does anybody have any idea of what it is, or what I could do for him until tomorrow when the vet opens?

Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

If this isn't the epitome of the desperation that breeds religious belief, I don't know what is. I can just see a primal tribe, dancing around the gas station parking lot, hoping that the magical sign drops a cent, and if it does, just once, they'll believe they caused it.

It's about as intelligent as a dog. And I mean that literally. A dog will do whatever action it was doing when it received a good fortune, such as a treat, because it attributes its actions to be the cause. There's a psychological term for it, but it's been too long since I was in a Psych class for me to remember it.

On our Q&A forums:

Q: What is the company’s policy on paid time off to attend fertility/IVF treatments?
A: None, we suggest that for these situations you either take unpaid leave or use some of your annual leave

Comment from original poster:
So let me get this straight, in order for me to have a baby I have to use up my annual leave or suffer financial hardship by taking unpaid time off? This sounds like discrimination against parents!

Translation by commanderd : "Wahhhhhhh, I want paid time off for me to have sex! Wahhhhhhhhhhh I shouldn't have to WORK for my money!"

Hello everyone, guess who's online again. Not for long though because I got so much work and I am so tired, I didn't exactly sleep a whole lot. Just checking in, really. And off I am again, bye!

I  was just watching an interview on YouTube of Simon. Admittedly, it was several years old(circa 1989), but have noticed something since, as well.  

Does Simon seem kind of down when he does most interviews or do you think he is just soft spoken? As much as I loved them all, you need to know that I in NO WAY mean this as a putdown or anything ugly. It just struck me(as it has before) that sometimes Simon seems...for lack of a better term, slightly depressed sometimes in interviews? I guess we all get that way and I should just have kept my mouth shut.

New Zealand man sells his soul to 'Hell' - A New Zealand man has sold his soul to hell -- Hell Pizza, that is. The New Zealand pizza chain said Thursday it had struck a deal with Walter Scott, 24, to buy a deed to his soul, shortly after an online auction site that initially agreed to the sale withdrew it from the Internet because of complaints it was in bad taste.

Crack annoyance squad wanted - Thanks to the World Youth Day Amendment Regulation signed by the the Deputy Premier, John Watkins, on June 25, doing something which "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day" could now lead to a criminal conviction.

Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail - A former state science curriculum director on Wednesday sued the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott, alleging she was illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture critical of the movement to promote intelligent design in science classes.

Obama Wants to Expand Role of Religious Groups - With an eye toward courting evangelical voters, Senator Barack Obama arrived here on Tuesday to present a plan to expand on President Bush’s program of investing federal money in religious-based initiatives that are intended to fight poverty and perform community aid work.

Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat - A postcard featuring a cute puppy sitting in a policeman's hat advertising a Scottish police force's new telephone number has sparked outrage from Muslims.

What do you think a town would be like if almost everyone in that town were an atheist?

Would it be much different than a town that was predominantly Christian, for example?

In other words, what would your life be like if all of your neighbors, all the city-level officials, all the educators, etc, were atheist too?

(I've created a community to work on a film-short project that may explore this idea.  The community is atheist_arts)

Here is a video of my almost three year old dancing to Robots (just like my subject line said).

Well, we said goodbye to our buddy Jello this afternoon. We thought we’d gotten him through all the medical traumas of the last few months*, but he developed a very fast-growing pancreatic cancer and has gone downhill fast in the last few weeks. We went to the emergency hospital where we had taken him last night and spent about an hour with him before he was peacefully put to sleep on Nicole’s lap. We are both heartbroken at the sudden loss of our dear companion. We’ll heal, of course, but it’s hard to weather another loss. It is also very hard because he was only 12 and had been doing so well just a few weeks ago.

*in April, he was diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, feline herpes and a heart murmur. He also had two abcessed teeth. A change in diet (to all-meat, no-grain) resolved the diabetes, even though the vet thought we wouldn't be able to control it with diabetes (which led to an insulin overdose that almost killed him!), and the dental work (4 extractions) went well, and the heart murmur was nothing serious.

So, I've been stalking this community for a few days now, and I'm really pleased to see there are human beings out there with objectivity, rationality and intelligence. Being here has really made me feel a little less like a freak, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

Unfortunately, this isn't the way of it in other places--particularly youtube. I'm constantly getting into skirmishes on the comment boxes for controversial videos, and with the 500-character cap limit, it's hard to form proper, educated responses.

I try, though, because I owe it to some people--those who seem like they've just been a bit misguided or fed bullshit--to illuminate erroneous myths and ideas about atheists (I can't tell you how many times I've had to repeat myself in regards to the Pascal's Wager fallacy). I'm not a scientist, though, and although I "believe" in evolution, I don't know half as much about it as I'd like to. So when I ran across someone who'd posted a huuuuge long sermon to me about evolution and how it couldn't possibly be true and oh by the way all homosexuals were going to hell and the rapture and blah blah blah, I posted back "You, sir, are a f**king moron." and hit send.

Now, I'd like honest opinions. Certain people are never going to come over to the side of logic and rationality--these people, it seems almost like a waste of time trying to argue with at all, and while it took him ten minutes to type that WE'RE GOIN 2 HELL LOL, it took me five seconds to tell him exactly what I thought of him. I don't do that with all theists, just the especially hateful ones.

It occurred to me afterwards, though, that I might be making all atheists "look bad" by way of his associating my opinion ("You're a f**king moron") with all atheist opinion. So what's the answer in a situation like that?

People are so frustrating...

Midsummer in Scotland is geat, because it pretty much doesn't get dark at all. I believe in Orkney they have an unlit golf tournament at midnight on longest day, and to be honest you could probably do that here too. Apart from the fact that playing golf would be an awful waste of a normal length day,  never mind the longest day of the year.

Let's not forget though, that this is Scotland, the land that seasons forgot, and midsummer or not there are days like today where it's so dull and grey outside that you have to burn the lights all day long to convince yourself that it's not a twenty four hour twilight. It's been threatening thunder, and indeed the odd peal has broken the stillness from time to time this afternoon, acompanied by a five minute torrent of rain which passes from heaven to earth unbothered by wind, slicing through the syrup air like taut cables.  Now in the evening the air's still heavy and hot, and the light's taken on that mustard yellow quality that it only does when the weather is really really pissed off. I find it totally mermerising that the light is such a rich colour, yet it totally fails to penetrate the battleship grey of the sky. It's like the light isn't reflecting off the clouds, or the trees, or the wet ground, but off the dense air itself.  To top it off there are slashes of rose-gold in the distance near the horizon where the cloud has broken to reveal the day it's kept hidden till it's all but over; glowing like amber wrapped in anthracite.

In short, it's absolutely beautiful out there.

I'm 17 weeks pregnant, and within the past few weeks, I've discovered what it truly means to have the preggo shits. I used the other office's bathroom and clogged the toilet so bad that the water was at the very top of the toilet bowl. 3 extra drops of water and that baby would've started to overflow. It was so bad I had to tell the secretary. I was so embarrassed. It smelled horrible. I think the boss had to fix it. He went home early that day. I think he was so disgusted he couldn't stay. I can't blame him.

Had it been me, I'd'a gone to the janitorial closet for a plunger and fixed it myself just to avoid anyone else finding out.

So, I thought I'd share.

My lovely boyfriend had his vasectomy this morning, around 10:30. He's currently chilling on an air mattress in the living room with a bag of frozen peas, his laptop and some or other text-based computer game. And he just now took one of his prescribed Lortab for the ache.

For anyone in the Middle or general TN area, here's the Doc info:

Dr. Theodore Shepard
Middle Tennessee Urology Specialists
1747 Medical Center Parkway
Suite 210
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
615.893.1600


When BF went for his vasectomy consult at the beginning of June, he made sure to have all of his ducks in a row so he could pose a convincing argument. Only took about five minutes. The doc's response was "You're a bit young (n: he'll be 26 in August), but it's a free country."

BF also told me as we left the office today that the nurse was very supportive, stating that a lot of people don't put enough thought into having kids and also mentioning that others should really have to have a license to reproduce. :)


So, yay for a relatively hassle free vasectomy.

Now we're just hoping/praying for quick healing/recovery and fast sterility. ^.^

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=199398&in_page_id=34

I'm not sure if this has already been posted.

"Tayside police force has apologised to the Muslim community after its ad campaign featuring a puppy sparked an outcry.

A picture of Rebel, a 29-week-old black Alsation, featured on postcards promoting a new non-emergency telephone number.

But the choice of the image, which shows Rebel sitting in a police officer's hat, was questioned as Islamic tradition warns Muslims against contact with dogs because they are seen as impure."

(Apologies if the link doesn't actually link, the rich text editor doesn't seem to like ubuntu)

I saw this above my Gmail today (I get some really interesting links that way) and thought I would share:
Its devotional candles like the ones you see for saints, but instead of Saints its for Scientists:
Perfect Ponderables is the website and you can get candles to commemorate famous scientists like Louis Pasteur Candle and Albert Einstein.

I'm waiting for the Rosalind Franklin candle to come out, because I would love to have something to burn in her honor on the day which she was born.

Cross posted to _scientists_ and atheist